Tournament Directors,

If you are using Track Wrestling to run your tournament set it up for, �Pre-registration open to the general public� when you sign up for your tournament. This will allow other clubs to quickly sign their kids up that have already registered their wrestlers with Track Wrestling. The system will prompt them to verify each wrestler�s name, age, weight, etc. are correct before they are actually entered. This will save a lot of typing every weekend, otherwise it becomes a time consuming process if you have a lot of wrestlers.

To register your wrestlers click on the �Membership� link on the left side of Track Wrestling�s home page and follow the instructions. Once the info is entered you won�t have to do it again. Then it just becomes a matter of placing a checkmark in front of the wrestlers you want to place in a tournament each weekend.

As more and more people start to use trackwrestling for their tournaments, people will begin to get more familiar with the program and understand more of the features such as this. This year is our first time using trackwrestling and so far, I like what I see and I can see the several advantages of the features like this. It is a process and most of us are still learning through the process. With input from those of us that use it maybe the word will get out about the many features available.

Sincerely,

Craig Gash
Derby Wrestling Club
Tournament Director

Please do not complain to people running the tournament about your wrestler being on wrong side of the bracket, two A rated wrestlers same side of bracket, weight classes being different than kansas guidelines, to much weight spread ect. It is a nightmare to deal with alot of these things after bracketing. Wrestle the bracket if mistakes are minor. This will help you get out of tournamens earler. The weight spreads are for the heavy & light weights to make more matches for your wrestler. The brackets are not going to be just like you want most the time. If I could decide where kids went in my sons brackets I would almost always change something. The worlds not perfect.

Track wrestling seems to be a great tool, but still seems clumbersome to get started on time, and a mad dash for coaches to fill out in time the bout numbers prior to matches. I also noticed a terrible clitch if it is meant to keep track of wrestlers for the purpose of seeding; we had one boy that I saw, (being my son) where not one of his matches was recorded accuratly, even a match that he had pinned a kid, showed up on track that he had lost 5-0 another was a 17-0 win that showed up 9-2, and one he lost 12-1 showed up as a 9-2 loss. I was just a bit courios as to the tracking of wrestlers and how such errors would effect an individual towards the end of year subs ...

The errors you are talking about are not the fault of Track Wrestling. The reason you see those kinds of errors is because the table workers did not write it down correctly on the bout sheets. The person entering the data into Track Wrestling has no way of knowing if the info they are entering is correct. If you have ever worked a table you can understand why these errors do happen. The table workers are working hard to make sure everything is correct, but sometime mistakes do happen.

There is a way to print off coaches bout sheets I had intenions of doing so, but I was to busy putting out other fires. Woodys right! Please every one that has a mistake in there bracket PM or email & I will correct it. ROSSVILLE.

I thought that Rossville had the brackets up much faster than any other tournament i have been to - considering they gave people a little extra time to weigh in because of the weather. If memory serves me correctly it was 9:10 when wrestling started. I had plenty of time to record all bout numbers for the 14 kids that our club brought and fill out several other bout sheets for the coaches of out kids.
Mistakes happen in record keeping and the computer system isn't all knowing... Mr. Luellen fixed mistakes that I found promptly.
I think trackwrestling is a good tool. People, however, make mistakes (unfortunately!)

I like track wrestling, but how come it takes so long to see what participants are going to these tournaments. It tells you what clubs and how many kids they are bringing but won't give you any names in each age and weight division. Is this the discresion of the tournament host or does track wrestling not release this information until the day of the tournament?

The tournament director decides when or if any info releases to public. The reason they dont show any info untill after deadline is so people wont be changing weights to get out of wrestling some one they dont want to wrestle.

After spending the last week fielding calls and e-mails from clubs needing to make changes but being unable to edit in this system, I would like to point out what I think is the problem.

When you go in and edit a wrestler there is a very small popup that comes up (near the top of the page) that asks you to temporarily allow popups. You have to click on that to allow the popup then go back and hit edit again.

You might consider turning off popup blockers when you are in this system to help the process.

Sharon Henes
STA Wrestling

Today was the 2nd time this year that we had bouts stacked so close together.
We had the one kid wrestle 5 matches in an hour and 20 min. This was with us skipping a few matches AND them adding in an exibition match.
You mention it to the ref or table worker and you would think you were asking them to cut off their foot. I know everyone wants to get out of there but this is too much. They are also so quick to blame it on Track Wrestling.
We really want to try this program in our club but I am just scared away by the stuff I see at other tournaments. The Valley Center people were working so hard today but it did not stop the very late start, stacked matches, and the riot that ALMOST happened at the table where they sell brackets. They had to start the tournament BEFORE coaches could even see brackets on the wall. They were just calling kids to tables.

I want to use track wrestling but we are trying to grow a club and put on a great tournament. I don't know if we can chance it.

Any Thoughts???

I thought the tourn went smoothly...

Yes, there were parents getting their panties in a bunch because they had to have the bracket.

My son's matches were running one per hour which was great... I do know the 6 man round robin kids were wrestling one after another in the end...

I was just glad to see that they were moving matches quickly to fill the open mats unlike some tourns...

Good work VC club...

I have helped with two tournaments this year and both of them had some of the same problems. The biggest was how much time you have when you close weigh ins to when you start printing wall brackets and bout sheets.

I would like some input to help with this and any other problems to run a more efficent tournament. Here are a few options that I see could help.

(1 )Sattelite weigh ins by doing this you would have the night before and the mourning of to have all the bracketing done and printed and ready for coaches in plenty of time before the tournament ever starts.

(2) Close the weigh ins the mourning of the tournament earlier to allow more time for bracketing. If this option is used it must be mandatory or you will not have acomplished anything.

(3) Instead of starting the tournament at 9 you could set the time for 10 to help give time to do the brackets.

These are just some options that I have heard and I am sure there are plenty more. But I think that with input from all those that go to tournaments rather it be from coaches, wrestlers, or spectators we can come up with something that we all can live with.

I know that there are some critics out there that only will see the negatives but for those of you that have helped hosting a tournament you all know haow much time is involved. This the biggest selling point for me is all of the small things that is so easy to acomplish using trackwrestling that would be a night mare if you were to have done it the old way.

When we had the Paola Tournamnet this year we were able to allow several kids that had entered into the tournament either in the wrong weight class or just plain and simple over weight the option of moving to a differant weight class so they could wrestle. Then when weigh ins were closed we had 38 scratches that we had to deal with. This was done with ease but because of the changes that we did we were hurried to get started at 9 (which I am very commited in doing) we made a few mistakes and did not meet our goals.

If we could keep this topic going I think it will help every tournament Director host a much better tournament.

Thanks

Tuff Hermreck
Paola Wrestling Club

One thing that we learned in using track wrestling that may be a good idea with so many people going to track wrestling is going to a Friday night only weigh in, then have several satilite weign in options. This would give you friday night after your weign ins to do all your scratches, bracket your tournament, post brackets and have your brackets available for sale as soon as people show up. You would start on time and would not have the afternoon weigh in to slow your second session down. Not saying that you may not run late with the second session that is unpredictable, but would sure make things go alot quicker. Just an idea

With track wrestling is it possible to print at least the first bout number and mat # for each wrestler on the team and put them on one sheet. Hand the sheets out to the coach at the coaches meeting. It seems pretty simple and would make the start of the tournament less hectic.

Yes this is possible. I learned this trick last year at Subs; before I actually used the program. goto the trackwrestling mobile site on your web-enabled phone to the following url. http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/mobile goto "event tools" then pull up the tournament, once there you can goto "Team bout schedule" select your team and pull up the first bouts that are scheduled for each of your kids on your team. You can also go here on your computer (the font is a bit small but still works the same)

We used the team bout schedule feature last year at our novice tournament and plan do so again this year. I can't tell you for sure if the coaches liked using them, except for our coaches, but I agree that the font is small. I do like the idea of using the mobile aspect of the site. I will make sure this is available for this year's tournament.

One suggestion after using this system for our tournament...don't put blank bout sheets on the tables "just in case"...

Also, during the table worker meeting make sure that the table workers are not changing anything with the brackets. We had one table change the bracket around due to a kid not showing for the match. Even though it made sense at the table, when it came back to the computer, it made things difficult.

This was our first year using track wrestling and although I still have a lot to learn and mistakes were made, it should be better next year. I would ask everybody to be patient with this system as it is a great tool and makes running tournaments so much easier! The kinks will get worked out!

I also see a time when we don't sign up for a weight class, only sign up your age group beforehand. When you weigh in you are put into a bracket in the computer. There will still be those who will cut weight but no more 6 and under parents wondering if their kid can eat dinner the night before weigh ins.

Sharon Henes
STA Wrestling

Let me start by saying I like Track Wrestling and what it brings to the wrestling community. Having said that, I think we as a community need to look at adjusting our business practices of how we run the weigh in and bracketing parts of our tournaments.

There's a lot of good suggestions already posted. I think the main problem we need to solve is how to get the coaches the match information of their wrestlers before brackets are posted to the rest of the community. I like the idea of getting a sheet with the wrestlers first bouts handed to the coaches at the coaches meeting. This gives enough time for us to inform the kids and parents.

The number 1 recommendation is the one Tuff made up above. Let's go to Friday night weigh ins at our own locations. Here's an example of how it could work.....

1. Practice Friday night at 5:30 or 6:00 pm.
2. Kids check weight. Warm up, drill, play a game.
3. Weigh your kids in. Club administrator calls or emails exact weights to tournament director by 8:00 pm.
4. Tournament director has all night to get brackets done.
5. Coaches can get brackets as they walk in the door.

Now what are the disadvantages to this.....

1. I know that you will still have some scratches of kids that just don't show up. I know that this creates a challenge and I am not familiar enough with trackwrestling to know how to overcome this challenge. This is still a very small population or percentage of the people attending the tournament.

2. People working the tournament bracketing will have to work on Friday night.

Advantages......

1. People don't have to travel on Friday nights for weigh ins.
2. Kids have fun at Friday night practice.
3. We don't have to get up extremely early for Saturday morning weigh ins.
4. I think tournaments will start on time.
5. Less stress and cost for the parents of the wrestlers.

What does this require.....

TRUST by adults.
I know some will take advantage of a system like this but I also believe that this will be a very small amount. We are talking about kids open and novice tournaments. The point of these tournaments are for the kids to get matches and experience. The adults have a tendency to worry too much about the weight, the kids just want to wrestle. I am willing to trust every club in this state in order to go to a system like this (I do not propose we do this for the subs, dist, and state; keep those the same).

By the way, we did this during the freestyle/greco season with the tournament in Manhattan and it seemed to work just fine. In our case, we didn't have to drive from Leavenworth to Manhattan on Fri. night or get up really early on Sat. We weighed in at home and I called the weights in by 8:00. It worked great....coaches liked it, parents liked it, kids loved it!

Shawn Budke

I dont understand this problem about coaches getting bout numbers on time. At rossville the brackets were on the wall at around 8:30 wrestling started at 9:10, this gives 40min to get bout numbers. You can print coaches bout numbers on trackwrestling & I promise I will do this next year at rossville. Home sight weigh in on the honor system will give a advantage to the people that dont have honor. I dont think thats a big problem as long as its not dist or state.